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This study aims to design and validate a new measuring instrument of service quality, and ultimately to establish a national service quality index for the banking sector. The primary contribution is the insight offered regarding what factors affect service quality and the BSQ Index, a national indicator reflecting the level of service quality within the banking sector.

A total of 3380 questionnaires were distributed to the customers of 21 commercial and Islamic banks, of which only 1,519 were deemed usable, yielding a response rate of 44.9 per cent. The proposed 29‐item instrument has been empirically tested for unidimensionality, reliability and validity using both exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis.

A factorial analysis suggests that service quality has three dimensions namely “Systemization”, “Reliable Communication” and “Responsiveness”, and subsequent multiple regression analysis revealed that “Systemization” is the most important service quality dimension within the banking sector. The overall weighted BSQ Index of 4.00 implies that banking customers are generally pleased with the quality of services rendered by banking institutions.

The new Bank Service Quality Index (BSQ Index) is expected to be an important complement to traditional measures of economic performance, providing useful information to the banking institutions, shareholders, investors, government regulators, and customers. This composite index shall become an indicator reflecting the level of service quality in the banking institutions.

The results from the current study are crucial because previous studies have produced scales that bear a resemblance to SERVQUAL, a generic measure of service quality, which may not be totally adequate to assess the perceived quality in the banking sector. Thus, the present study captured customers' evaluation of service quality in a 29‐item questionnaire exclusively adapted to the unique nature of the banking sector.

Islamic finance and Halal product sectors are thriving successfully. This chapter is a general review of the perception of Asian consumers on Islamic finance and Halal sectors in the global Halal economy.

The first section will briefly describe the Halal concept in both Islamic finance and Halal industries, and the growth of both sectors in Asian countries. The second part highlights the review of Asian consumers’ perception towards Islamic finance products and Halal products.

The review found that the consumers’ perception towards the Islamic finance products and Halal products is distinctive. This is due to the diversity of Asian countries in terms of geography, religion, culture, ethnic, school of thoughts (madzahib), income per capita and government’s involvement.

The third part of the chapter concentrates on planning towards Halal marketing, which involves the move and future challenges in different layers of industries to gear up and strengthen the Halal economy.

Branding in faith-based consumer markets, in which marketing practices, religion, and consumption intersect, is largely unexplored. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how brands integrate religious concerns into their strategies through Halal branding. The central logic of authors’ view is that branding applied in a particular consumer market (i.e., Muslim) could enrich dominant (Western) branding theory.

Although challenging, qualitative research offers a valuable lens in international marketing research in allowing researchers to study organizations and contexts in their natural settings, enabling a more holistic approach, instead of imposing one’s culturally informed pre-conceptions (Boyacigiller and Adler, 1991). In this regard, a multiple case study approach considering Halal cosmetic brands is used. A replication logic is applied in interpreting the data.

Holistic branding is a broader concept than what mainstream theory acknowledges; brand attributes go beyond the functional and emotional, offering insights into a spiritual dimension. The proposed model identifies attributes that reflect the brand’s worldview and contribute to holistic branding: spiritual ethos and belief system, sustainable and eco-ethical philosophy, wholesomeness and inclusiveness.

This exploratory research represents the initial step for faith-based/Halal branding; the discussion is confined to the cases under study. The results are not conclusive and require further empirical research to validate their broader applicability.

The study highlights the need for a comprehensive approach to branding of faith-based products. The Halal market (cosmetics and toiletries) may be attractive to companies that seek to widely develop products targeting faith-based Muslim consumer markets.

The study contributes to an area of growing concern from an academic point of view (i.e. Halal branding) by proposing to add a spiritual dimension to holistic branding. Several questions remain and should stimulate further research. Hence, researchers would be able to understand more clearly the meaning of the religious environment and the impact that environmental forces are likely to exert on business decisions.